Managing the review element of your Google Places page can be a challenge – especially with regards to how to deal with negative or fake reviews from competitors so let’s take a look at how to handle this.

Step 1 – Negative or fake?
Try to be as objective as possible and decide whether the review is a negative or a fake review – this is not necessarily clear cut as I believe there are “prank” reviews which may be initiated by a teenager. Try to ascertain who has left the review: Are there any clues in the username? Some usernames will reflect the user’s “real world” name. Think back to see if there is a connection between any “prickly” customers you may have had.

The first step in creating a listing on Google Places is to check whether or not your business is already listed in the Google Places directory. Google has been having some issues with its Phonelookup function which makes it impossible to get past the “Find business information” page. The problem is specific to Internet Explorer and therefore the solution is to start creating your Google Places listing in an alternative browser – curiously it works extremely well in Chrome.

There is a lot of debate about the value of Social Media in terms of engaging with customers, building brand awareness etc. but as a brand I represent has just started to get active in Social Media, I have started to monitor its contribution to the lead generation aspect of the site.

When a location is input as part of a search phrase on Google a collection of local businesses appear in the search results. The data for these listings is feed from the Google Places directory. How do you get your business listed in those results? How to make moves to improve your present position within these types of results? Follow these tips on how to create and promote your business listing on Google Places.

Step 1 – Plan / research key elements of your business listing

Think of a clickable business name

Your natural instinct will be to input your business name. Hold fire because it pays to be more descriptive and to add additional elements to your business name. If you are a butcher, it might pay to add elements like ‘halal’, ‘kosher’ or ‘wholesale’ to attract customers looking for these specialised services.